Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (2022-07-19) (2022, Prom 7)

Troy has fallen, and the Trojan hero Aeneas and his band of refugees seek safety with Queen Dido of Carthage. But as Dido’s compassion deepens into love, dark forces plot against her happiness – and Destiny has little patience with a mere human heart.

Henry Purcell turned a classical tragedy into what might be the first truly great opera in the English language: composed for a London audience in the late 17th century and still as moving in the 21st. Alice Coote is the tragic Queen who sings her famous lament, and following his Proms debut last year, David Bates returns to direct his innovative period-instrument ensemble La Nuova Musica.